The four-strong team, reporting into Tui’s national account manager – commercial relations, Andrew Isherwood, is tasked with driving trade bookings and growing awareness of Marella’s ocean and river product.

Tui’s UK and Nordics account manager for its Tourist Boards Partnerships team, Steven Heath, has been appointed as senior cruise commercial support manager, tasked with building relationships with agent partners. 

Supporting Heath will be two cruise commercial managers, Jessica Garner and Lynsey Roberts.

The pair have held a number of roles at Tui including Garner’s time as deputy retail manager and Roberts, who has previously worked as cabin crew, in retail management and most recently within business systems and training during her 25-year career with the business.

Completing the new Marella team will be Sarah Whitehouse as training delivery manager, having worked as a Tui store manager and more recently as a training consultant.

Garner, Roberts and Whitehouse will take up their new roles on 31 October, with Heath joining the team on 28 November.

Chris Hackney, managing director of cruise at Tui UK and Ireland, said: “We’re excited to be growing the team at this pivotal time for the cruise industry. Since the restart of cruise last year, we’ve been working hard to reassure customers and get them back to cruising.  

“We have ambitious plans for Marella and Tui River Cruises, and having a dedicated team in place to support agents will play an important role in the businesses’ future. With the launch of Marella Voyager and our new US itineraries on Marella Discovery in 2023, we are seeing trends of customers booking earlier than before.”